Whether it’s a day at the beach, a birthday party or meal out, time spent as a family always creates lasting memories. People can often think it’s the expensive holidays and days out that bring the most family fun, but that’s not always the case!

So far this year we’ve held over 2,000 experiential engagement events, bringing lots of family fun and laughter to McDonald’s restaurants across the UK. Delivering family events may seem a little daunting, especially the thought of trying to please the whole family, but we’ve outlined some of our top tips below.

Our top three tips to deliver a great family event:

Engage the whole family (parents too!)

One of the aims of our events is to offer a memorable experience for the whole family, so it’s important to get everyone involved. When children hit a certain age, they can think it’s not cool to get involved, so it’s important to have activities to suit everyone. Parents sometimes think that because some activities seem to be aimed at children, that they don’t need to get involved – but if you can get them to take part they’ll normally let loose and have a great time acting ‘like children’ with their loved ones!

Families value time when everyone is together, especially as children get older and hit those teenage years (which can sometimes feel very premature!), so get them doing something together. We usually find it’s the simple concepts that get people engaging together.

Everyone loves a giveaway

You regularly see brands holding events in shopping centres and supermarkets, and automatically assume they are trying to sell you something or sign you up to their mailing list. We must admit we’ve been guilty of pretending to be on the phone to try and avoid those awkward encounters, as they always seem to want something from us. It’s great to give people something to take away with them from the event. It doesn’t have to be something extravagant, it could even be just a branded rain mac, but it’s a way of creating long lasting memories.

Be fun and confident

The people delivering the events are crucial to its success and it’s important to be friendly, confident, engaging and approachable. Our events are held in restaurants, and it’s key to be outgoing and interact with everyone in store. If you appear to be shy, nervous or disinterested then families won’t want to approach you and get involved in the event. But don’t go too over the top and become pushy, as this can have the opposite effect and deter families from taking part. Make sure you’re genuine, build up a rapport with the family and, above all else, have fun!